Tamburlaine the Great — Part 2Marlowe, Christopher
History
Tamburlaine the Great — Part 2
Marlowe, Christopher
English drama; Historical drama; Timur, 1336-1405 -- Drama; Tragedies (Drama)
TECHELLES. And, mighty Tamburlaine, our earthly god,
Whose looks make this inferior world to quake,
I here present thee with the crown of Fez,
And with an host of Moors train'd to the war, [48]
Whose coal-black faces make their foes retire,
And quake for fear, as if infernal [49] Jove,
Meaning to aid thee [50] in these [51] Turkish arms,
Should pierce the black circumference of hell,
With ugly Furies bearing fiery flags,
And millions of his strong [52] tormenting spirits:
]From strong Tesella unto Biledull
All Barbary is unpeopled for thy sake.
TAMBURLAINE. Thanks, king of Fez: take here thy crown again.
Your presence, loving friends and fellow-kings,
Makes me to surfeit in conceiving joy:
If all the crystal gates of Jove's high court
Were open'd wide, and I might enter in
To see the state and majesty of heaven,
It could not more delight me than your sight.
Now will we banquet on these plains a while,
And after march to Turkey with our camp,
In number more than are the drops that fall
When Boreas rents a thousand swelling clouds;
And proud Orcanes of Natolia
With all his viceroys shall be so afraid,
That, though the stones, as at Deucalion's flood,
Were turn'd to men, he should be overcome.
Such lavish will I make of Turkish blood,
That Jove shall send his winged messenger
To bid me sheathe my sword and leave the field;
The sun, unable to sustain the sight,
Shall hide his head in Thetis' watery lap,
And leave his steeds to fair Bootes' [53] charge;
For half the world shall perish in this fight.
But now, my friends, let me examine ye;
How have ye spent your absent time from me?
USUMCASANE. My lord, our men of Barbary have march'd
Four hundred miles with armour on their backs,
And lain in leaguer [54] fifteen months and more;
For, since we left you at the Soldan's court,
We have subdu'd the southern Guallatia,
And all the land unto the coast of Spain;
We kept the narrow Strait of Jubalter, [55]
And made Canaria call us kings and lords:
Yet never did they recreate themselves,
Or cease one day from war and hot alarms;
And therefore let them rest a while, my lord.
TAMBURLAINE. They shall, Casane, and 'tis time, i'faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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